Major U.S. cable companies to allow WiFi roaming across 50,000 hotspots

By Gene Ryan Briones on 05/21/2012

Today, major U.S. cable companies Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Cox Communications, Bright House Networks and Cablevision announced that they will enable their customers to access their WiFi networks. The 5 cable companies mentioned that the service will cover 50,000 hotspots. According to the press release, a new network name “CableWiFi” has been created for subscribers to simplify the access to the hotspots. Bright House Networks and Cablevision have already launched “CableWiFi” together with their branded WiFi networks in the New York City area and central Florida earlier this month. The rest of the three cable companies are expected to add their the “CableWiFi” network into their own branded WiFi hotspots in the next coming months.

No word about additional charges has been heard, but the end-game is to make more money obviously. Subscribers will have to sign in to the network using the same username and password credentials they have for their current subscriptions, although the companies are promising that automatic connections to the WiFi hotspot will be supported in the coming months. Subscribers will be able to find the nearest WiFi hotspots by visiting the WiFi homepage of their current cable provider or by visiting www.cablewifi.com.